ABSTRACT
Because of ideological differences, varied perspectives have emerged on some issues. The major contentious issues are: abortion, sexuality, class, race, motherhood, the family and work. Of these, abortion has probably been the most difficult. As Adrienne Rich says, it is hardly the issue women would choose to ‘symbolise our struggle for self-determination’; but it is one, she writes:
which has been perhaps more mystified, more intellectualised and emotionalised than any other, and which glares out from the complex spectrum of issues surrounding women’s claim to bodily – hence spiritual – integrity. (1980, p. 15)
